Sri Lanka, which was censured over its human rights record during the last days of the war against LTTE in 2009, has made steady progress in improving its image, External Affairs Minister said.

Addressing reporters in the central town of Kandy, External Affairs Minister G L Peiris said as many as three different foreign ministers in recent weeks had visited Sri Lanka.

Peiris said, Sri Lanka’s international relations are good and have no reasons for concern.

“They have seen for themselves the progress we have made which no other country could match after a conflict which lasted as long as 30 years”, Peiris said.

Peiris said no less than five different senior Indian ministers were among the foreign dignitaries to visit Sri Lanka in the recent times.

“There will be important visits from China and Russia in the near future”, Peiris said.

Sri Lanka’s foreign policy and its relations have come under stress since the war with the LTTE ended in 2009.

Colombo accuses the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora of moving particularly the Western governments to act against Sri Lanka.

Since a key human rights resolution was adopted in March at the UN rights body with US and Indian backing, Sri Lanka has looked to establish diplomatic relations with regions such as Africa where the island had hitherto not attached much importance in its foreign policy, PTI reports.

1 Response to International relations good, no reasons for concern – GL

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka is headed by
Prof. G.L.Peiris as the minister, Neomal Perera MP as deputy minister and Sajin
Vass Gunawardena MP as monitoring MP appointed by HE. The President. The Ministry
of Foreign Affairs has a battery of diplomats and other allied staff attached
to all it’s diplomatic missions in capitals of almost all the UN member states.
Some are excellent, some need a bit of push. The Administration is headed by a
top civil servant/administrative officer Karunatilaka Amunugama who was the Sri
Lankan ambassador to China before assuming this office. It has been evident
that during the new tenure of office of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, these
officials have done Sri Lanka’s Foreign Service the very best and contributed
very much towards enhancing Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy with the member nations
of the UN and the Commonwealth that mattered to Sri Lanka. It maybe that they
would have played the most important role of advising and updating the
President with thoughtful futuristic foreign policy planning and strategies,
based on which the President and the cabinet of ministers would have taken the decisions
that are being implemented. Prof. G.L.
Peiris is very correct when he tells the press/media in Kandy recently that Sri
Lanka’s international relations are good and have no reasons for concern.
The Prof is a silent worker and he trusts his team. Do not forget, he has a top
International PR man in MP, Sajin Vass Gunawardena.
Sri Lanka’s tough stand at the March 2011 and 2012 Geneva
conventions of the UNHRC are indications of how a little nation like Sri Lanka,
a little “David” before the bullying superpowers of the US and the UK, the “Golaith’s”
stood it’s stand not to cow down to undue geo-political pressure of the mighty
Western powers, including Canada used as a proxy nation to frame undue
allegations of violation of freedom of press/expression/media and allegations
of disappearance of individuals and abductions charges against Sri Lanka. UK
should be ashamed to have done so to a little nation like Sri Lanka when just
this week the Monarchy of the United Kingdom and the UK government violated the
principle norms of the serenity of PRESS FREEDOM/FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION by
clamping democratic despot rules barring the UK press from publishing the nude
pictures of Prince Harry in a hotel incident in Las Vegas last week. What are Amnesty International and HR Watch
doing about this? Then, how dare the UK say that Sri Lanka is violating
PRESS FREEDOM/FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION at the UNHRC in Geneva. As for Canada, how
come that Quebec a province of the Canadian Federation pass emergency laws last
month to curbed the freedom of movement and protest (expression of opinion) to
stop their own youth/students from holding demonstration marches against
university tuition increases. How shameful are they to accuse little Sri Lanka
of doing such faults. What about the 500 odd Aboriginal women under the age of
30 who have gone missing in Canada, 50% during the last decade under mysterious
reasons. Let’s be blunt. The main reason
an in-depth investigation points fingers at racism, stereotyping and
discrimination. There seems to be a deadly double standard at play by the
Canadian Authorities and the Government, accusers The Native Women’s Association of Canada. What are Amnesty International and HR Watch
doing about this too? Sri Lanka’s foreign policy and its relations definitely
have come under stress since the war with the LTTE ended in 2009. The
accusation made by Colombo that the pro-LTTE Tamil diasporas of moving
particularly the Western governments to act against Sri Lanka is beyond doubt
the TRUTH.